


it's a flash and a click (and instant memories in your pocket)

by itsagamefortwo



Series: five times something goes wrong and one time it goes right (jatp) [6]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Mild Swearing, also. this one defo isn't sad. i am standing by this fact, i just think reggie is into taking photos okay, its all about the Friendships my loves, y'know that line in unsaid emily that's 'maybe time will not erase me'?, yeah i took that and kinda sorta applied it to reggie a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29317533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsagamefortwo/pseuds/itsagamefortwo
Summary: Reggie likes to take photos of things that are important to him and sometimes people take photos of him.aka 5 times reggie takes photos of his friends +1 time he finds out they've got photos of him.But most of them are of Alex and Luke and Bobby. Of the four of them hanging out and laughing and smiling and looking happy.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Reggie Peters, Carlos Molina & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina & Reggie Peters, Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Ray Molina & Reggie Peters
Series: five times something goes wrong and one time it goes right (jatp) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986928
Comments: 32
Kudos: 124





	it's a flash and a click (and instant memories in your pocket)

_**one.** _

Sometimes, when he got bored, Reggie would pull a box out the downstairs closet near the kitchen and start rooting through it. His parents kept everything, stashed away and unlabelled, but everything they’d ever been given.

Reggie didn’t really understand why.

They never ate salads with dinner and yet he’d found a wooden case full of salad forks in a cardboard box, along with two French dictionaries and an old disconnected landline. None of them even _spoke_ French.

He assumed they probably had their reasons for keeping things, but he also didn’t care to figure out what it was. Adults were weird. All he knew was that the closet near the kitchen was full of unsupervised treasure and it was all _his_. Reggie had made sure to tell his older brother -- who had just rolled his eyes and put his headphones back on -- and he’d told his parents -- who had simply nodded and gone back to discussing something he didn’t care about -- and then he’d made a little sign and stuck it to the door.

He likes to think of it like Aladdins cave from that book they read last week at school. Full of wonder and treasures all for him. And his friends, because he found a box of old baseball hats a while ago that Bobby loved.

It’s where he finds his first camera, carelessly pushed to the bottom of a cardboard box with books stacked on top.

An old blocky canon with scratches along the sides and a frayed strap that he slung around his neck without hesitation. He holds it up with both hands, peers through the little hole with a grin. Pulling back, he presses the little on button and watches as the lens opens, a tiny dot of light appears and a little number seven flashes in the corner.

Without bothering to put the box away or even close the door, Reggie runs into the kitchen where his mom is pouring herself a drink and his dad is reading the paper. They’re not talking to each other, or even looking at each other, but he doesn’t have time to worry about that because Alex is meant to be coming over soon and he’s just had the best idea!

“Can me and Alex go to the park when he gets here?” He skids to a stop by the table, one hand on the edge to stop himself from falling and breathing a little heavily for such a short trip. But he’s _excited_.

His dad glances up from his paper, dark eyes resting on him momentarily before he shrugs once and goes back to his paper, “Sure.”

“Only to the park. No detours,” his mom says turning to face him with her glass in hand and stern face on as she looks at him. He’s already nodding his head with a wide grin before she’s finished her sentence and rushed back out of the room.

By the time Alex gets dropped off at his house an hour later, Reggie has his shoes on, camera slung around his neck and a head full of photo ideas. The tail lights of Alex’s mom's care have barely vanished around the corner before Reggie is grabbing his hand and pulling him down the street towards the park.

“I thought we were gonna play _space invaders_ ,” Alex grumbles as he lets himself be pulled along, shoes scruffing on the pavement as Reggie almost trips and takes him down too. “ _Dude_.”

“Sorry,” he breathes out, letting go of his friend's hand as they reach the park entrance and he bounces on the balls of his feet, hands gripping the sides of his camera tightly. “I wanna find the best dog to take a photo of.”

“Why?”

Well, that hadn’t been the question he expected Alex to ask if he was honest. Reggie frowns a little, fingers fiddling with the edge of the camera’s strap as he peers around the park.

“I don’t know. Dad says we can’t get a dog because no one will look after it, which is stupid. Because I’d so look after it,” he mutters, which he knows isn’t really an answer. But he also doesn’t really know _why_ he wants to take photos of dogs.

“Think we can climb that tree by the swings and get a better view of the park?” Alex asks, chewing on his bottom lip as he looks at said tree and Reggie grins again. If Alex is on board with his idea then he can’t be totally weird.

“The one by the bench is taller,” he counters, pointing at the tree just a little further away with a thicker trunk and wider branches, Luke had fallen out of it last year and fractured his elbow. Alex clearly remembers that fact too because he pulls a face.

“Mom would kill me if I had to go to the hospital, come on,” Alex says and pulls him away from the Danger tree and towards the swings.

They quickly discover that while the tree probably does offer a good view of the park, neither of them can climb it. Huffing as he drops to the ground again next to Alex, Reggie turns the camera on and holds it up to his eye. Everything looks a little further away and darker and faded. When he can see the Danger tree and the bench, he clicks the button, face jumping back at the sound and the flash. And then he’s grinning, eye back to the camera and turning it towards Alex. The other boy only realises a second too late what’s happening, his mouth opening and hand reaching up to push him away when there’s a click and flash.

“I’m not a dog,” Alex complains, hands reaching out for the camera and Reggie only hesitates a little before handing it over. He tries to look cool, leaning back on his hands and throwing his head back like he’s laughing, but one of his hands starts to slip and his eyes widen just as the click and flash come and Alex is giggling to himself.

“Come on, I wanna see if I can take a photo and swing at the same time!” Reggie reaches for his camera, already brushing off his embarrassment and pulling Alex along with him.

(He doesn’t manage to get any photos of dogs in the park that day, but, after begging his parents for two days they finally take him to get the film developed, he has seven slightly blurry and out of focus photos. Two of Alex, one of him, two of a tree, one of the sky from the top of a swing and one of the legs up against a tree as they lay on their backs. He loves them so much he sticks them to his treasure closet door.)

_**two.** _

He’s eleven when his brother leaves for college and twelve when his parents started _really_ fighting. It was lots of shouting late at night and early into the morning and meals ate in tense silences that he tried to break with stories from school but gave up on when all he got was one word responses and glares.

He thinks a lot about what he could do to help them, to make things better. He tried making dinner one night, but didn’t know you had to take the plastic off the top of the container and nearly burnt down the kitchen and made his mom shout for an hour. Then he’d tried washing his dad's car, but he’d tripped over the hose while carrying a bucket and left a dent in the side of the back door that had made him furious.

They always apologised to him afterwards with gifts and his favourite meals. The first gift had been a banjo -- that they’d quickly regretted when he insisted on playing them everything he learnt -- and then they’d bought him a brand new bike that he’d rode straight to Luke’s house with a wide grin. But the newest gift might have been his favourite.

It was a box of five disposable cameras and a promise to take him to get the films developed whenever he wanted. He’d already used up one of the cameras on them messing around in his tree house and then messing around with their instruments on a single Saturday.

And now he has plans to use up another one today.

Sticking his tongue out, he holds the camera steady against his face as he tries to get the whole coach in the photo. His classmates are all milling around in front of it, some of them turn to grin at him but most then even seem to notice. Which is fine with him. Biting down on his tongue Reggie hits the button and grins at the flash, pulling the camera away and already winding the film on.

“How many photos has it got?” Bobby asks from next to him as he pulls at one of the straps on his back pack.

“24!” Reggie grins at him, raising the camera up to his face again and pointing it at Bobby, who’s quick to grin at him, shoving a thumbs up in front of his face just in time for the flash.

Of all his friends Bobby is the one who adapted to Reggie carrying a camera around the quickest. Alex still tried to cover his face and most of the ones of Luke involved him pouting because he wasn’t ready. But Bobby was always ready to shoot him an easy smile or pose.

By the time their teacher is calling for them to file onto the coach Reggie has taken three more photos of the couch and Bobby and one of the two of them together -- he’s not sure how that one will turn out, his arms really aren’t long enough for that sorta angle.

Shoving his bag under his seat, Reggie lets out a yawn as he makes himself comfortable, camera tucked into the little pocket of the seat in front of him. He catches the frown that Bobby is directing at him and raises his eyebrows.

“What?”

“Were they fighting again last night?” he asks quietly, and Reggie’s glad about that. It’s not like he’s _embarrassed_ about his parents fighting, because all parents fight, right? It’s just what they do. Shout at each other and at him and then pretend everything is fine the next day when they hand him a fun gift. But Reggie doesn’t want to make his other classmates jealous about all the cool stuff he gets.

“Yeah, a little,” he shrugs, rolling his shoulders in his seat and cringing at the sound of the chairs material against his denim jacket. So he leans forward to shrug it off and stuff it into his bag. “But mom made me pancakes before school this morning, so it’s alright.”

Bobby looks like he wants to say something, eyebrows drawn together and his lips parting, but then their teacher is calling for their attention, going through the rules of the trip and the days itinerary, and when she’s done the moments passed and Reggie starts a game of eye-spy.

He doesn’t mean to, but at some point he must doze off because the next thing he knows Bobby is gently shaking his shoulder and the coach has stopped moving. Blinking and rubbing at his eyes, Reggie squints out the window.

“We here?” He asks and clears his throat when it comes out a little croaky.

“Yeah,” Bobby nods and that’s when Reggie notices that he’s pulled his jacket out of his bag for him and is holding it out. With a smile he takes it, stretching out his back before slipping his arms through and stuffing his camera into one of the pockets.

“You think they’ll let me take photos of them mixing the chemicals?” He asks as they walk into the medical labs in white coats and goggles.

(Reggie waits until he’s used up all five cameras before asking his dad to take him to get them developed. They spend the hour waiting time getting ice cream and talking about football that he doesn't care about and then Reggie spends the whole car ride home looking through his photos. There’s lots of scenery and blurry landscape shots and some of his family from Christmas.

But most of them are of Alex and Luke and Bobby. Of the four of them hanging out and laughing and smiling and looking happy. As he flicks through the ones from his school field trip with Bobby he has to blink several times at the two he finds of himself asleep on the coach. One with his mouth open and head against the window and another where he’s turned to bury his face in Bobby’s arm.)

_**three.** _

So far, Reggie could say with the utmost certainty, that Luke’s fifteenth was _not_ going to according to plan.

Which was like, so annoying because it had started off so well! His parents had given him a new guitar strap and a journal, and Luke had jumped up to hug his mom and Reggie had felt a lot like he was intruding on a moment. And then Luke’s dad had clapped his hands and ushered them all into the kitchen for breakfast.

It was going well. They’d had a nice breakfast, Emily hadn’t commented when Luke said they were gonna hang out by the pier and go out for pizza, that he wouldn’t be back in time for dinner or cake. Honestly, Reggie thought it was a good sign for the day. If Luke could avoid fighting with his parents on his birthday, it meant they were gonna have a good time.

Maybe he’d jinxed it.

Because when they cycled to Bobby’s house they were filmy told by his dad that Bobby wouldn’t be going anywhere today and then Alex couldn’t meet them until later -- the real downside to having a birthday on a sunday when one of your friends parents were very insistent on church -- and then it had started raining.

Originally they’d planned on hanging out by the pier, watching the buskers and eating ice-cream and maybe hitting up the arcade. But the rain would drive all the tourists into the arcades and wet ice-cream wasn’t fun.

Huddled under the awning of a shut shop, they look at each other both slightly frowning and shivering.

“ _Ron’s_?” Reggie suggests, one eyebrow raised and blows out a sigh when Luke is quick to nod.

When they stumble through the door of _Ron’s Relic Records_ ten minutes later Reggie thinks the day can probably still be saved. There’s nothing Luke loves more than music after all, and he glances at his friend as he shucks off his leather jacket and can already see Luke starting to relax.

Reggie likes music, he loves playing the bass and the banjo and he _loves_ their band, but he knows that Luke loves it in a different way. For Reggie it's the thing he does that makes him happy, for Luke it’s like -- like music is the thing that allows him to **_breathe_**. It’s a _lot_ if he thinks about it too much. So he tries not to think about it too much.

Luke wanders off towards the rock sections and Reggie browses through the collection of disco before getting to country.

“You boys need any help?” A voice from the front counter pulls their attention and Reggie grins at Ron who’s leaning against the glass countertop and idly flipping through a magazine, not even looking at them.

“Nah, we’re good thanks,” Luke shoots him a grin too, that he doesn’t see and then turns it on Reggie. They’ve been coming to _Ron’s_ for years now and not once has the bloke even looked at them. Even when they buy something. Always got his eyes on a magazine. It’s pretty impressive really.

Eventually Reggie makes his way to the back of the store where his favourite things are. There’s rows of band posters and ticket stubs lining the back wall from all sorts of bands, one day they were gonna have a poster to go up there. There’s a few old acoustic guitars in glass cases and a keyboard that doesn’t work propped up against the wall and then there’s the photo booth.

Reggie doesn’t exactly know why a record store has a photo booth hidden away in the back and he’s never gotten around to actually asking, but it’s his favourite thing in the place. For all the years that they’ve been coming to _Ron’s_ the thing hasn’t worked, always a little _out of order_ sign strung across the red curtain and no lights on inside.

But today something is different. It takes Reggie an awfully long time to notice that the _out of order_ sign isn’t there and that there’s a pale yellow glow imitating from inside. He doesn’t mean to but he lets out an audible gasp, one hand clapping over his mouth while his other pulls side the curtain, just to check he’s not imagining it. But no, there’s the screen glowing faintly with instructions and the money slot lit up.

With one hand still gripping the curtain he looks around the shop until his eyes land on Luke still in the rock section, dutifully looking through all the records so he doesn’t miss anything new.

“Luke!” he doesn’t mean to shout it as loud as he does, but Ron doesn’t even flinch and Luke looks over at him curiously, which only grows when all Reggie does is wave him over.

“It’s working,” he practically hisses as soon as the other boy is close enough, one of his hands reaching out to grab on to Luke to pull him closer until they’re both looking at the photo booth.

“Huh, cool,” Luke says, peering inside and looking back at Reggie with a raised brow. “We gonna get in or?”

Reggie doesn’t even try to keep the wide smile off his face as he squeezes Luke's arm once and then lets go to jump into the booth, butt hitting the wooden bench with more force then he intended. He’d never noticed the lack of cushion before. It makes him feel a little better when Luke jumps in just as excited, letting out a small hiss when he realises the same thing.

Standing up, Reggie digs a few crumpled dollar bills out of his back pocket and feeds two of them into the machine, not realising he’s holding his breath until the screen lights up a little brighter and a countdown appears.

It’s an old machine and the only way to see how they’ll look in the photos is their reflection from the screen.

“Fuck!” Luke says as he slings one arm around Reggie’s neck after the first flash when he hadn’t been ready. Reggie’s pretty sure he’s laughing in the second and by the third Luke’s thrown his head back with a laugh too. By the fourth flash they’re leaning heavily on each other and giggling at nothing.

“Okay we gotta go again and take it _seriously_ this time,” Luke decides, pulling out bills of his own and feeding them into the machine. This time, they’re ready for the countdown on the screen and are both grinning by the time it reaches zero.

Ten minutes later they exit the booth red cheeked and stomachs aching from all their laughing and Reggie's pretty sure Luke's birthday is now back on track.

(They end up with five strips of photos. They’re smiling and laughing in nearly all of them and Reggie has a special fondness for their third attempt. Luke hadn’t managed to fully sit back down after standing up to put in more money and his body is twisted at a weird angle to get his face into frame, in the next one he’s half on top of Reggie and smacking a kiss into his cheek and then Reggie is flipping him off with a grin and in the last one they’re just smiling, but he can still hear their giggles echoing through the booth if he concentrates. It makes him smile every time he remembers it. The photo strips join his other photos and later, when they drag Alex and Bobby back to _Ron’s_ and get six more strips of photos, they join them too.)

_**four.** _

Reggie had always been a little bit worried about being forgotten. He’s pretty sure it started when he was nine and his mom left him at the store for three hours before coming back for him.

(He had wandered around the fruit and veg section for half an hour before one of the workers spotted him and took him to hang out in the back room where someone had taught him to play a card game and another had snuck him a soda. Honestly, he’d had a pretty good time and almost forgot about all the arguing at home.)

But she had come back for him, which was the part Reggie reminded himself of. She’d remembered him. She’d come back for him. But, there had been a moment where he’d thought maybe she wouldn’t. That’s what scares him.

If his own mom could forget him, why would anyone else ever remember him?

The band was part of his way to avoid being forgotten about. Luke wanted a connection with the world and to share his music. Alex wanted an outlet and to prove his parents wrong. Bobby wanted fame and fortune and love. But Reggie, he just wanted people to remember him when he was gone.

It’s why he started taking more polaroids then film photos. One click and an instant memory that he could hand to someone else to keep. Because if even one person remembered then thirty years from now then that would be enough for him.

What was that saying? A picture was worth a thousand words? Well in that case he would take a thousand photos if it meant there would be ten thousands words out in the world about him.

And his friends. He wanted the world to remember them too. For their music sure, but also for just how awesome they are.Because man, his friends were the _best_ and he wanted the whole world to know it.

So he’d taken part of the money that was his that they’d been earning from gigs and bought the second hand polaroid camera he’d seen in a thrift store and all the film he could find for it. He’d used part of the film over the last few weeks on random photos of things he saw around town, of their rehearsals, of their small following, of Alex mid runway walk and Luke hunched over a notebook writing a song. All the photos of _them_ were placed safely in a box tucked under his bed at home. Bobby joked they could be used for their future biography, Reggie thought that was a great idea and planned on getting a fireproof box, just for extra security.

But he’s saved most of the polaroid film for tonight. At _The Orpheum_. Luke said it was gonna be their big break, Bobby knew there was gonna be a crowd of people just for them, Alex was convinced it was going to be epic. And Reggie knew, if it all went right, they were gonna be _remembered_ for it.

“Reg, we’re literally just setting up our gear. Do we really need photos of this?” Alex complains when the flash of his camera distracts him from twisting on of the screws on his stool.

“We’re gonna want to remember every second of this,” Reggie says, already shaking out the photo that had popped out of the bottom of the camera, the blurry outline of Alex and half his kit slowly coming into focus. He grins at it as he places it next to his growing pile on top of his amp. There’s one of Bobby and Luke talking about something, and one of the outside of the venue, and one of him and Luke with half of his face missing, and another of the outside of _The Orpheum_ but from a different angle.

“He’s right,” Luke chimes in, guitar slung over his back as he scribbles something in the margins of his notebook before he’s bouncing over to their drummer with a grin. “In ten years when people ask us about this night, think how cool it’s gonna be to have all these photos to show ‘em?”

Luke slings an arm around Alex’s shoulders, pulling the blonde close and making his stumble a little. Without really thinking about it Reggie raises his camera up, peers through the viewfinder and presses the button on top, a flash and click filling the stage. Alex spares a moment to roll his eyes at him before shrugging Luke’s arm off his shoulders and finishing up with his stool.

Bobby appears next to him, gaze already on the photo that Reggie is shaking out and he feels Luke’s arm wrapping around his shoulders as he comes to look too. Slowly, the three of them watch as a small version of Luke and Alex show up, Luke grinning and Alex half frowning, half smiling at him.

“Oh that’s a good one, that one's gotta go in the box,” Bobby says, nudging Reggie slightly as he pulls away.

“If you weren’t the best bassist in the world, I’d totally hire you as the band photographer,” Luke grins at him as he gently pulls the photo from his fingers to look at it closer. Reggie can’t help but grin back at him for the compliment and for the fact that Luke has never once complained about all the photos he takes. It makes him feel like he’s not the only one worried about being forgotten.

“Hey, you want me to take a photo of all you?” A voice pulls all their attention to the front of the stage where a woman is looking up at them with a raised eyebrow. Reggie first thought is that she’s incredibly pretty and they should be asking if she wants a photo taken. His second thought is hell yes he wants a group photo.

The four of them share a quick look and when Alex shrugs and steps away from his drums, Reggie grins. Pulling the strap over his neck he steps over the edge of the stage and crouches down in front of the woman.

“You know how to use one of these?” He asks, not that he doubts her abilities, but well, he really wants a good group shot.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” she says, one eye dropping into a wink and a small smile that almost makes him blush.

“Cool,” he breathes out and pushes himself back to his feet, turning around to find a space left for him between Alex and Bobby.

Alex slings one arm around his waist, and Bobby has one over his shoulders and Reggie can feel the tips of Luke’s fingers tapping a beat on the back of his shoulder from over Alex’s. He wraps one arm around Bobby’s waist, pulling him closer and the other around Alex’s shoulders, his fingers just long enough to poke Luke in the cheek as the camera flashes. The groan of annoyance that Luke lets out send the three of them laughing just as the camera flashes again.

“One of you smiling now boys,” the woman's voice chides, but she sounds amused too. It takes them a moment to compose themselves, arms all tangled with each other and legs brushing and laughs still echoing in their ears. When the camera flashes for a third time Reggie knows he was smiling wide.

Pulling away from his friends he jumps off the end of the stage, wincing a little as his feet hit the ground with more force then he was expecting but shrugging it off to hurry over to the woman who’s got his camera around her neck and shaking out three photos.

“Here,” she carefully pulls the camera over her curls and puts it over Reggie’s head and then hands him the photos with a grin, “Can’t wait to see what you guys can do later.” And then she’s walking away.

“Thank you!” He calls at her retreating back and then glances down at his photos just as he feels the boys gathering around him.

“Oh man I look like I’m gonna barf in this one,” Alex squints at what Reggie thinks is their first photo and can’t help but agree.

“Yeah, but we all look great in this one,” Bobby counters pointing to their third photos, all smiling faces and wide eyes, their instruments behind them.

Personally, Reggie thinks the second photo is their best. Because they’re all mid laugh, with Bobby’s head thrown back and Alex’s eyes crinkled and Luke’s full blown smile and his eyes shut tight. It’s the one he thinks showcases them best. No one has ever been able to make him laugh or smile like these three boys, and he’s glad he gets to keep this moment forever.

(Reggie takes more photos that night, of the boys and their instruments and the stage and where the audience would be. But his favourites are definitely the three that the waitress took for them, they’re the ones he knows he’s gonna look back at in years to come and remember how it felt to stand up on that stage and feel like a legend. Because that’s what they were gonna be. Bobby was right, in ten years after they’d released a few killer albums and someone offered them a book deal for their life stories, these photos were gonna be great. He tucks his stack of polaroids into the little side pocket inside his bass’ case before they go for street dogs, ready to be added to his box of photos after tonight.)

((He doesn’t know what happens to his box of photos after the street dogs and twenty-fives years in a dark room and coming back as ghosts. He’d hoped, if his parents were still in their house that they’d have kept his box somewhere. That he could poof in and look through the closet by the kitchen that was always full of treasure and find it hidden away at the back. But his house is now a bike shack and he doesn’t know where his parents are or even his brother so he tries to forget all about his photos and his memories, like how they’ve probably forgotten about him. He doesn't like to dwell on how that was his biggest fear.))

_**five.** _

Of all the things that have been improved by the future Reggie is most impressed by the cameras. The way you can take one and instantly see it, in _colour_ and with _no_ shaking? It’s like –– well it’s kinda like magic if you ask him.

When he hangs out with Ray it’s mostly because he likes how calm he is, but Reggie also just likes learning all he can about how cameras work these days. The way you take a little card out of the camera and push it into the computer and suddenly all the photos are there? It fascinates him so much that when Ray goes to work he tries to figure it out himself. (He’s never been more glad to be invisible to everyone but Julie when Ray comes home and looks at his computer in confusion.)

Later, after the jolts and the _Orpheum_ take two and nearly dying and Julie’s magical hug and when they’re suddenly _tangible_ and _visible_ , Julie officially introduces them to her dad. The three of them were nervous for three different reasons that really boiled down to the _same_ reason. They all wanted Ray to like them.

Which he does, because Ray is the **best**.

The first time Ray finds him messing around with one of his camera’s Reggie panics and almost poofs out, camera and all. It’s only the growing smile on Ray’s face that keeps him in his seat at the dining room table.

“Ah finally someone who’s interested in my cameras!” He says, patting Reggie on the shoulder as he walks past him to sit down next to him. Carefully, Reggie puts the camera down and shyly starts to ask all the questions he’s got about _digital_ and how it all works.

And Ray, because he’s the **best,** explains everything to him patiently and with the same type of enthusiasm that Luke gets when he’s talking about a new band he’s found. Afterwards, when Reggie’s haphazardly clicked around on Ray’s computer and proudly showed the older man the photo he’d turned black and white, Ray calls him _mijo_ and says he’s welcome to use this camera whenever he wants.

Which is all it takes for Reggie to start picking up the camera whenever he can.

He starts taking photos during their rehearsals again and whenever he wanders down to the beach by himself and of Alex and Willie when they’re lost in each other's company and Luke and Julie both leaning over a notebook at the piano. Reggie hadn’t realised how much he’d missed taking photos until he started again.

“Hey Reggie come check this out,” Carlos calls from his place on the sofa as Reggie’s walking through and doesn’t need to be asked twice before he’s throwing himself down onto the cushions next to him, grinning as they bounce a little under his weight.

“What we looking at little man?”

“Snapchat filters,” Carlos grins at him as he tilts his phone screen to show him and Reggie’s eyes widen at the dog ears that are suddenly on his face and widen even further when he opens his mouth to comment and a _tongue_ appears too.

“Woah!” He finally gets out, opening and closing his mouth to watch the tongue stick out and vanish. Carlos must hit something on the phone because the screen flashes and the image of his face with dog ears and tongue half sticking out is looking back at him.

“Are there more?” He asks, looking over at Carlos with a wide grin who's already nodding his head and tapping at his phone screen again.

An hour later when Julie comes through the front door, Reggie and Carlos are still giggling on the sofa as they swipe through different filters, changing their voices and features and Reggie can’t decide which ones his favourite.

“What are you two doing?” She asks, eyebrows raised as she approaches them cautiously and leans over the back of the sofa. The laugh she lets out when she sees their faces on the screen –– distorted by a filter to make their jaws wider and their eyes smaller –– brushes across his skin and Reggie turns to smile at her.

“Snapchat filters! They’re so cool Jules, why didn’t you show us them?” He pouts a little at her only for Julie to scrunch her nose up in another laugh.

“I didn’t realise you’d be so into them,” she reaches a hand out to swipe at Carlos’ screen and murmurs, “Can we do a flower crown?”

The little ‘ _ah!_ ’ she makes when she finds it makes Reggie feel like this is going to be a good filter, if it’s Julie’s favourite it’s gotta be good.

“Oh!” Reggie sighs as he looks back at the screen to see all three of their faces squished together on the screen with pastel flower crowns atop their heads. He can see why she likes it so much, Julie should always wear flowers in her hair.

(Later, Julie helps him download and create an account on snapchat on one of their old phones and he shows it to the boys when the rest of the family has gone to bed. They spend most of the night messing around with filters and recording little videos with voice changing effects that they send to Julie. And it’s so _cool_ Reggie thinks, how he can basically carry a camera around in his pocket and take a photo of the people he loves and the things he finds pretty and can see them instantly. Ray might have explained about digital and technology and science, but Reggie still secretly thinks it’s a little bit like magic.)

_**+one.** _

It’s weird, Reggie decides, to be finally turning eighteen. Only twenty-five years too late.

It’s why he hadn’t really wanted to make a big deal about it, he’d not told Julie or Ray or Carlos because he knew they’d want to do _something_.

But Reggie wasn’t sure if he wanted to celebrate or not. Because technically he should be like, 44 or something. Which was –– even weirder to think about.

So he didn’t think about it and didn’t tell the Molina’s and was planning on going about his day like normal. (Despite the fact that he used to _love_ celebrating his birthday and eating as much pizza as he wanted and getting the biggest slice of cake.)

He forgot to take into account that Alex and Luke both couldn’t keep their mouths shut about special occasions and dates. Which _okay_ , he wasn’t exactly good at that either but still. It was different when it was _his_ birthday.

He almost thinks that they’ve not spilled the beans on the date when he slips into the house before dinner, only a little suspicious about how quiet the place is. He’d already checked the studio for the boys but they weren’t in there and given that they couldn’t poof around the world anymore, there were only a handful of places they could be.

“Hello?” He calls, peering around the empty kitchen and dinning room and, if he hadn’t been listening to any kind of sound, he might have missed the hushed voices coming from the living room. Frowning, he lets the back door shut behind him with a click and quietly makes his way through the kitchen, leaning against the wall and peeking his head around the edge to see the whole family crowding around the living room table. They’re whispering about something as they flip through a book and he watches as Julie picks something up out of a box and puts it on a page. Now he’s just confused. Are they having an arts and crafts family session without him? Reggie pouts, he loves arts and crafts.

Clearing his throat he steps out from behind the wall and tries to walk in the room as casually as he can.

“Hey guys, whatcha doing?” He stops in the doorway and watches with growing confusion as they all freeze before jumping into action hiding whatever it was they’d been doing. Okay, so a secret arts and craft session he wasn’t invited too. He was trying not to feel hurt by that.

“Reggie! There you are, dude. We were talking about ordering pizza, you like pizza right?” Luke’s quick to jump up, already halfway to him before Alex shoots him a look. Luke is good at many things, but dodging questions is not one of them.

“You know I like pizza,” he mutters, eyebrows drawing closer together because he knows Luke and he knows Alex and he knows what that look means because he’s shot it at both of them before. They’re hiding something from him that involves glitter. On his _birthday_. “Do you guys want me to go?” He asks, pointing to the front door and takes a half step back, but Luke is already next to him, an arm around his shoulders and stopping him.

“What? No! Why’d we want you to go?”

“Because––” he gestures back to the table and whatever it is that Carlos is trying to hide under his shirt.

“We don’t want you to go anywhere,” Alex says and now he shares a look with Julie about something and Reggie’s really starting to feel left out on all these looks.

“Right, Reggie, you sit down. We’ll be back in 10 minutes?” Julie looks at her dad, eyebrows raised and Ray considers a moment before nodding once and then Julie is looking at him again, smiling. “10 minutes. You stay here. Luke is going to… entertain you.”

Before any of them can comment Julie, Alex, Carlos and Ray are rushing out of the room, hidden object, box and glitter with them. Reggie turns his confused gaze to Luke who’s avoiding his eyes but smiling and trying his best not to bounce which is–– all very confusing.

“Okay man, what is going on?” He finally asks after Luke has listed all the pizzeria options and his personal preference.

“Nothing?” He tries, but his voice goes up at the end and he’s still not looking him directly in the eye. God, Reggie’s never noticed how bad he is at lying.

“Dude––” Reggie starts but then there’s a drumroll and Luke is letting out a sigh. Alex walks into the room, tapping a beat on the toy drum that Willie had gotten him for Christmas, with Carlos following after him with three pizza boxes piled in his arms and then Julie and Ray are walking in with a wrapped box in her hands.

“Uh… what’s going on guys?” he asks as they surround him with smiles. Honestly, it’s a little creepy.

“Okay so, we know it’s your birthday,” Julie starts and Reggie turns accusational eyes on Luke who’s back to avoiding his eyes. “Reg you told us when we were filling in the forms for your social security, relax.”

Oh. Right, he’d forgotten about that. He shrugs sheepishly at Luke who just pats him on the shoulder.

“But anyway, we figured you didn’t want to do anything big. But it’s your birthday, and we didn’t want to _not_ celebrate you, because we love you and you deserve to be celebrated. So um, well–– here.” Julie pushes the wrapped box into his hands and takes the empty space next to him on the sofa, Alex hopping onto the arm next to Luke while Carlos sits himself on the floor at their feet with an eager grin.

“Um…” he looks from the box to their faces and up to Ray, who nods at him with a soft smile.

“Go on, open it.”

And, he doesn’t need to be told a third time to open a gift addressed to him.

He’s never been one to carefully unwrap a present, he’s always torn into paper and tossed it around him like confetti, which dying and becoming a ghost and coming back to life hasn’t changed about him. But when he’d normally rip a lid off a box, he pauses, because someone’s written his name in cursive across the lid and coloured it with red glitter. There’s a little cowboy hat instead of a dot over the i in his name. Reggie can’t help it, but he feels tears prickling at his eyes and he’s not sure why.

“Gotta open the box man,” Alex nudges his knee with his foot, a half smile on his lips and Reggie rolls his eyes at him, but does as told. Carefully lifting the lid and putting it on the table, he’s greeted with a smaller box that looks vaguely familiar and a book.

He picks the book up first, opens it to the first page and–– _oh_. It’s a photo of the four of them. They’re sitting in a corner booth of an under 21’s bar they played a few months ago, and it’s after they’re set he thinks, because there’s a certain giddiness in their smiles and the way they’re all sort of leaning on each other. Reggie hadn’t even known someone was taking photos.

“Wha–” he starts, looking up at Julie, because she feels like the safest person to look at right now, though he’s not sure why because she's smiling softly at his with wet eyes too.

“Keep going,” she says softly and reaches over to turn the page for him.

It’s a series of photos of the four of them on stage and Reggie grins as he peers at them a little closer. He’s pretty sure some of these are from when they were still ghosts.

He’s on the third page when it hits him that this is a photo album of him, and of them. The family he found for himself. Reggie looks up at Ray, because most of these photos had to have been taken by him when none of them had been noticing.

“I take photos for a living _mijo_ , I have to practice somehow. I just happen to have a very photogenic family,” he shrugs one shoulder but there’s a gleam of pride in his eyes that makes Reggie flush, like he does every time Ray reminds them that they’re _family_.

“This is so cool guys,” he whispers, fingers tracing over their laughing faces in one photo and turning to the next page.

And–– Reggie looks over at Luke and Alex with wide eyes because that’s a photo of them from when they were _kids_. In fact, there are four pictures on the page of them as kids.

“How?” He chokes out, and this time he knows he’s going to cry because Reggie knows for a fact that these photos had been hidden away carefully in a box under his bed back in 1995.

“So uh, we talked to Bobby. And, we didn’t ask for details, but he somehow got your box from your parents,” Alex starts and Reggie isn’t sure why he looks so nervous. “And he’s just been keeping it under his bed for twenty-six years. Which, is a little weird but I’m choosing not to focus on it. Anyway, we went to ask if he had any photos of us as kids for the book and he just brought it out.”

“Well actually he whispered ‘follow me’ like some weird super villain and led us into his bedroom where he pulled the box out from under his bed,” Luke corrected and yeah, okay, Reggie had to agree that was a little weird. But he was gonna follow Alex’s lead and just to just...not focus on that.

And instead focus on the fact that this book was full of his childhood and his memories that he thought he’d lost, and his present and the family that he’d found. And they’d been saved by Bobby, an unexpected link.

“I uh–-” he lets out a wet laugh, eyes going from Alex to Luke to Julie to Carlos to Ray, not sure how to say what he was feeling. He’d always been a little worried about being forgotten, but Bobby had kept his photos for twenty-six years, and Alex and Luke had remembered them and Julie and Ray and Carlos had spent hours putting this together. He runs a hand over his face, trying to stop himself from crying anymore.

“This is–- thank you guys.”

Julie wraps one of her arms around his waist, pulling herself against his side and laying her head on his bicep, “Happy birthday Reg.”

“Oh! Oh! Open the little box,” Carlos says, suddenly on his knees and already pulling the lid off the box before Reggie can respond and there’s two disposable cameras tucked into a tissue paper bed.

“There’s some blank pages at the back of the book, we thought you could find a way to fill ‘em,” Ray says from across the room, “And I’ve got a friend who’ll let us into his dark room, so you can develop the films yourself.”

“Wait, really?” Reggie grins, knees bouncing a little as he gets more excited.

“Yeah _mijo_ ," and Ray says it like it's the most obvious answer in the world.

“Best birthday **_ever_** ,” Reggie breathes out, carefully putting the box on the table before flopping back on the sofa as he grins, dragging Julie with him and Luke following as he pulls Alex down too.

“Hey I wanna join in,” Carlos shouts and next thing he knows there’s a weight across his legs and Luke muttering something that makes Julie giggle but he doesn’t know what any of them are saying because his attention is on Ray, who’s pulled a camera off a shelf and he smiling as he snaps a photo of the five of them. All Reggie sees is the flash, and feels at home.

(After too much pizza and Victoria has shown up with a cake bigger then any of the plates in the house and Willie has come run in with a bunch of balloons in shapes of guitars and cowboy boots and they've all said good night, Reggie looks through his photo album again. He looks at every photo he's taken and every photo that Ray has taken and lets himself breath out a breathe he hadn't even known he was holding. Even if they never make it big -- which is a big _if_ because they were an awesome band -- Reggie knows that he people in this house will never forget him, will never let him be forgotten, and really, that's all he's ever wanted.)

**Author's Note:**

> hello hi my loves!!! so i think this might be my last lil 5+1 fic for this series! (unless inspiration strikes for willie, but so far i got nothin' fhdjsk) the inspiration of this one was very much 'what if reggie takes lots of photos but also what if reggie was terrified of being forgotten' and here's where we ended up 🤷🏻♀️  
> there might be a parents 3+1 but i'm unsure about if anyone would be interested in that so it's on the back burner as they say. 
> 
> if you've read through all of these lil fics i hope you've enjoyed them!! and that i finally got one right and it's not too sad ghfjd
> 
> anyway!!!  
> i hope you're all staying safe in these hard times.  
> hope you enjoyed! comments and kudos are appreciated!! mwah xox  
> you can also find me on [tumblr](https://tangledstarlight.tumblr.com/)! come talk to me about random things!


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